A Deputy alternative with no £20 minimum
Deputy is powerful rota software, priced per user with a £20 monthly minimum. Rotaleave is UK rota, leave and clock-in software that is free for teams of 10 or fewer, and £5 a month plus £1 a head after that.
30 days free, full access, no card. Free forever for 10 or fewer.
What a small team pays
Take a team of 8. On Deputy Lite, the cheapest plan, that is 8 × £3.60 = £28.80 a month on monthly billing, or £26.00 a month on an annual plan. On Rotaleave it is £0, with leave, rota and clock-in included. Here is how it looks at other sizes, before VAT.
| Feature | Rotaleave | Deputy Lite |
|---|---|---|
| 3 people | £0 | £20.00/month: the minimum spend (3 × £3.60 would be £10.80) |
| 8 people | £0 | £28.80/month billed monthly, or £26.00/month on an annual plan |
| 15 people | £10/month | £54.00/month billed monthly, or £48.75/month on an annual plan |
| 25 people | £20/month | £90.00/month billed monthly, or £81.25/month on an annual plan |
Deputy prices are per user per month in GBP, excluding taxes: Lite £3.60 billed monthly or £3.25 on an annual plan (billed upfront or in monthly instalments); Core £4.75 / £4.25; Pro £7.25 / £6.50. The £20 minimum applies per invoice on monthly plans. From deputy.com/gb/pricing, checked October 2026. Rotaleave: free for 10 or fewer, then £5/month + £1 per person over 10, plus VAT where applicable.
Rotaleave and Deputy, feature by feature
| Feature | Rotaleave | Deputy |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, up to 10 people, with every feature | No. A free trial, then paid per user |
| Minimum spend | None | £20 per month per invoice on monthly plans |
| Who counts | Everyone not archived, admins included. Archive a leaver and they stop counting at once | Every user, admin and supervisor. A user added or archived mid-month is charged for the full month |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel any time | Monthly, or annual (seats cannot be reduced and there are no refunds on cancelling) |
| Rota | Weekly grid, repeating templates, fill from working patterns, publish with notifications, shift swaps | Basic rotas on Lite; auto-scheduling, micro-scheduling and demand forecasting from Core |
| Clocking in | Phone app or a shared kiosk tablet with a PIN; site geofences; weekly timesheets with CSV export | Tablet, mobile, web and watch apps; geofencing; face-unlock kiosk from Core |
| Leave and holiday | Included: days or hours, approval rules, a limit per department, cover rules by skill, blocked dates, carry-over, TOIL | Leave tracking in every plan, in hours or days; caps on how many are off and carry-over rules need Pro or the £2/user HR add-on |
| Bradford factor report | Included | On Pro, or with the HR add-on |
| Labour costs | Pay rates, rota cost and a weekly budget, once switched on | Wage and labour budgets from Core |
| Integrations | Payroll CSV (Xero and QuickBooks formats), Slack, Microsoft Teams, calendar sync, API and webhooks | Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, BambooHR, HiBob, Zapier and more |
| Single sign-on and two-factor sign-in | Not yet | SSO on Pro |
| Bringing your data | Staff CSV import. No Deputy importer | — |
| Mobile apps | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android |
Deputy details from its UK pricing, leave management and integrations pages, checked October 2026. Check their site for changes. In Rotaleave, Slack, Teams and calendar sync are switched on for your organisation on request; labour cost, payroll export and the API are switched on by an admin.
Where Deputy is better
Deputy is far more mature. It has been going since 2008 and says 390,000 workplaces use it. On its Core plan it forecasts the staff you need, builds rotas automatically and tracks wage budgets. Its kiosk can recognise faces, and staff can clock in from a watch. It connects directly to payroll and till systems such as Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Square and Lightspeed, and Pro adds single sign-on, location hierarchies and 24/7 live chat.
If you run several busy sites, schedule against sales forecasts, or need a direct payroll link, Deputy is the stronger tool and the per-user price buys real features. Rotaleave does not forecast, has no face recognition, and has no two-factor sign-in yet.
Rotaleave is the better fit for a small UK team that needs a rota, holiday booking and clocking in, and does not want to pay £20 a month or more for them. Holiday rules that Deputy keeps for Pro or its HR add-on, such as how many people can be off at once, are part of Rotaleave’s price.
How to move from Deputy
There is no Deputy importer. The staff CSV import brings your people across instead; shifts and past timesheets stay in Deputy.
1
Put your team in a spreadsheet
Download the staff CSV template from Rotaleave and fill in one row per person: name, email, role, start date, annual allowance, department, team and working days. Copy the details across from Deputy or from your own records.
2
Preview, then import
Upload the file under Settings → Data → Import / Migrate. The preview lists who will be created and flags any row with a problem. Nothing is saved until you click Import. Invite emails stay off unless you tick the box, but reminders start about two days later, so import when you are ready.
3
Build the first rota
Set working-hours templates, then plan a week on the rota grid. Leave booked in Rotaleave shows in each person’s row, so you can see who is off as you plan.
4
Set up clocking in and invite the team
Add your sites and a kiosk tablet, or let staff clock in from the app. Invite everyone when you are ready to switch over.
Guides: build and publish a rota · set up a clock-in kiosk · invite your team
Deputy switching questions
Does Deputy have a minimum monthly spend in the UK?
Yes. Deputy’s pricing FAQ says there is a minimum monthly spend of £20 per month per invoice on its monthly Lite, Core and Pro plans, from 1 September 2025. So a team of three on monthly Lite pays £20, not £10.80. Rotaleave has no minimum: teams of 10 or fewer pay nothing.
Is there a Deputy importer in Rotaleave?
No. Rotaleave has importers for Timetastic, Ento, Leave Dates, Vacation Tracker, Breathe HR and BrightHR, but not Deputy. Bring your people across with the staff CSV import instead. It sets up people, roles, start dates, allowances, departments, teams and working days. If you also want past leave brought across, contact us and we will talk it through.
Do managers and admins count as paid users on Deputy?
Yes. Deputy’s pricing FAQ says all users, administrators and supervisors count towards your user number. Rotaleave counts everyone who is not archived too, admins included, but the first 10 are free.
Is leave management extra on Deputy?
Basic leave is not. Every Deputy plan tracks leave, in hours or days. But Deputy’s Leave Management+, which adds caps on how many people are off, carry-over rules and pro-rating when hours change, needs the Pro plan or the HR add-on at £2 per user per month. Bradford Score reporting is on Pro or with the HR add-on too. In Rotaleave, department limits, cover rules, carry-over and the Bradford factor report are part of the price.
Can Rotaleave build rotas automatically like Deputy?
Not in the same way. Rotaleave has no demand forecasting or auto-scheduling. It does have repeating templates and a fill-from-working-patterns option that leaves out anyone on approved leave. If forecasting staff from sales is central to how you plan, Deputy’s Core plan does that and Rotaleave does not.
Can we try Rotaleave before cancelling Deputy?
Yes. Rotaleave’s 30-day free trial needs no card and has no limit on team size, so you can import your staff list and run a week or two side by side. Deputy says a cancelled monthly plan is paid to the end of the monthly billing period, and an annual plan cannot be refunded, so check your Deputy plan before you switch.
Compare Rotaleave with
Timetastic alternative
Leave and rota in one price. Import straight from Timetastic.
Breathe HR alternative
Leave and rota without a full HR suite. Import your Breathe HR reports.
BrightHR alternative
No fixed-term contract. Import your BrightHR exports.
RotaCloud alternative
Rota, leave and clock-in in one price.
Leave Dates alternative
A free plan, plus rota and clock-in. Import your Leave Dates reports.
WhosOff alternative
Rota built in. A team of 10 pays £0, not £17.50 a month.
Switching to Rotaleave
Every importer, and the staff CSV for everything else.
No minimum. Free for 10 or fewer.
Bring your team across with the staff CSV import. 30 days free, no card.
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